The new elegant, high-style Beau Lake Runabout is definitely not your grandfather’s pedal boat, the big white plastic contraption that you’d often find in city lakes and amusement parks. Indeed, its designers say they were inspired by the lines of a Riva Aquarama. With its mahogany deck, inch-thick leather seats, reverse transom and gracious tumblehome, the Beau Lake would be at home in any first-class dock or boathouse from Lake Tahoe to Lake Como.
“Traditional injection-molded plastic pedal boats stand out like sore thumbs,” says Paul Lavoie, the co-founder and CEO of Beau Lake. “Nothing about them blends into the natural surroundings and architectural designs of today’s cottage lifestyle.” A former ad exec (BMW Mini, Nike and Telus) and film director, Lavoie says that with the Runabout, “we’ve turned an ugly fiberglass duckling into an elegant swan.”
The Runabout has a molded fiberglass hull, cockpit, inlaid veneer deck, and a hand-carved black walnut tiller. A Bimini is optional for weather protection. It has a tunnel hull and the pedal drive mechanism is quiet and efficient, with a polished stainless-steel drive shaft that eliminates noise and splashing by keeping all propulsion under water. The company says the boat cruises at 5 knots.
The Beau Lake Runabout costs about $25,000, and the Canadian company is dealing with a surplus of orders. It also is working on a new Runabout with a battery-charged e-bike motor and four power settings – in case you run into a headwind.
